John Varley is a science fiction writer with several Hugo and Nebula awards to his credit. He has produced a wide array of short story collections and novels in his career.
His most recent novel is ROLLING THUNDER, the sequel to RED LIGHTNING and RED THUNDER.
New Table of Contents
- How I Discovered John Varley
- About John Varley
- Varley-related Blogs
- Varley's Eight Worlds Universe
- The Wonders of the Eight Worlds Universe
- The Thunder & Lightning Trilogy
- About John Varley
- The Gaean Trilogy
- Interviews with John Varley
- Varley's MILLENIUM
- Clips from "Millenium"
- John Varley Rarities and Collectibles
How I Discovered John Varley
I still have my very first Varley paperback in my collection. It was printed in 1980 and was the short story collection THE BARBIE MURDERS. I had been a voracious reader my entire life and as a teenager, the schools had told my parents I was reading at college levels, so I pretty much got to read whatever I wanted.
The cover copy sounded perfect to me, and I bought the book based on that alone.
On the moon, they're altering their bodies so everyone can look exactly alike. They're turning Pluto into an amusement park. A cult of zealots is painting the second ring of Saturn red. And on Earth, they're reading JOHN VARLEY'S THE BARBIE MURDERS.
The nine stories in the collection were all set in Varley's Eight Worlds universe, where aliens have kicked all the humans off the Earth to save dolphins and whales. And now all human life is spread across the Moon and the remaining planets, save Jupiter, where the aliens came from. It introduced me to the ideas of gender-change on demand, human-cyborg bombs, human-alien symbiotes that could live in raw space and so much more. I've been ready to pack up and live in that society every moment of every day since.
That collection sent me on a literary quest, to find and devour everything I could that Varley has written. The only author who has more of his books and story collections on my shelf is J.G. Ballard.
BTW, if you're looking for it, the collection has been since reissued as PICNIC ON NEARSIDE, I guess there's less copyright issues in that name.
About John Varley
John Herbert Varley (born August 9, 1947 in Austin, Texas) is an American science fiction author.
Varley-related Blogs
- Aural Delights No 32 John Varley mp3
- Aural Delights No 32 John Varley. Poetry: Goodbye Is Meaningless by Laurel Winter 01:03. Flash Fiction: The Candidate by Jack McDevitt 02:35. Fact: Captain Power Amy H Sturgis 10:27. Main Fiction: The Bagatelle by John Varley 13:05 ...
- Into the mouth of the Bishop of Battle
- And there's something classically monstrous about his mouthing of the hero at the battle's climax, a nice note of body horror. It's not a great story. From that period, one could do much better with John Varley's "Press Enter[]. ...
- Interview w/ John Varley
- Is that exactly as it sounds (a young John Varley running happily behind a truck spraying DDT everywhere)? If you'd grown up on the Texas Gulf Coast you'd know exactly what I mean. The mosquitoes there were suspected of carrying off ...
- Rolling Thunder - John Varley
- I have always loved John Varley's work, and I have very much enjoyed Red Thunder and Red Lightening, but... ( you had to know a "but" was coming) I found this latest edition to be half good. The first 40% is actually enjoyable (I speak ...
Varley's Eight Worlds Universe
The Barbie Murders
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The Ophiuchi Hotline
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Steel Beach
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The Golden Globe
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The Wonders of the Eight Worlds Universe
Varley has made some changes and variations as his Eight Worlds universe has unfolded over the years. Essentially, humans were kicked off Earth by aliens from Jupiter who wanted save whales and dolphins.
Human population now is spread out on Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. There are those who make their living hunting black holes in space. People can change gender and there's a certain percent of the population that enjoys the practice of Changing. Fatherhood has been removed, and the population edict is "one person, one child." You want a baby, you get to give birth to one yourself. A central computer runs everything, with a custom user voice interface and personality variation for each person. There are strange cults, political battles, tabloid reporters, brontosaurus ranches, weather artists and people who live in the Rings of Saturn and more.
The Thunder & Lightning Trilogy
Red Thunder
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Red Lightning
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Rolling Thunder
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About John Varley
- Varley.net
- The Official Website of Science Fiction Writer John Varley
- John Varley (author) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- John Herbert Varley (born August 9, 1947 in Austin, Texas) is a science fiction author.
- John Varley: The Eight Worlds Universe
- John Varley's unique blend of technovision, social engineering, and humor has entertained and amused audiences for twenty years.
- John Varley
- A bibliography of John Varley's books, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.
- Varley Vade mecum :: Ready Reference for John Varley Fans
- Science fiction SF book club discussion group.
- The Locus Index to Science Fiction Stories, Listed by Author
- VARLEY, JOHN (Herbert) (1947- ); see pseudonym Herb Boehm
- The Infinite Matrix | John Varley | Beyond Bedford Falls
- Beyond Bedford Falls, a short story by John Varley. In The Infinite Matrix, a magazine for people who enjoy science fiction as a literature of ideas. Edited by Eileen Gunn.
- Libs in Space
- Libs in Space by Timothy Sandefur - A review of "Red Thunder."
- John Varley - from isfdb
- John Varley - Summary Bibliography (Long Works)
- SCI FICTION | Bagatelle
- John Varley's short story "Bagatelle" - wherein a man has himself turned into a bomb and threatens to blow up a city on the moon.
- VARLEY IS SELLING HIS ROBOT COLLECTION ON EBAY!
- Too much stuff! I am tired of owning so much STUFF, so I'm getting rid of all 18+ U-Haul boxes of my robot collection for whatever they will bring.
- The novel Heinlein would have written about GW Bush's America
- Red Lightning, the latest novel from John Varley, is the book Robert A Heinlein would have written if he lived in George Bush's America.
The Gaean Trilogy
Titan (Gaia)
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Wizard (Gaia)
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Demon (Gaia)
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Interviews with John Varley
- Interview: John Varley
- Volume I Issue 4 Interview: John Varley Virtual Scene: John sits in a director's chair, smoking. There are three monitors behind him flashing film clips: cnn, mtv, talk shows, industrial equipment demo tapes, hbo's sex bytes, nasa footage.
- Science Fiction Weekly Interview
- John Varley travels back to the summer of love and forward to the rebirth of the mammoths
- John Varley Interview
- SCIENCE-FICTION WRITER WILTED IN HOLLYWOOD By J. Stephen Bolhafner
Published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Monday, July 20, 1992 - Shaun Farrell interviews John Varley
- John Varley, the Nebula and Hugo Award winning author, was born in Austin and raised on the Gulf Coast. He began to study science at Michigan State University, but soon discovered that school is boring. John began writing science fiction in 1973, and since then he has produced hit novels such as The Ophiuchi Hotline, Titan, Demon, Millennium, Steel Beach, The Golden Globe, Red Thunder, and his newest work, Mammoth.
Varley's MILLENIUM
If you keep a very sharp eye out, you can find Kid's In The Hall alumnus Scott Thompson in the futuristic cast.
Clips from "Millenium"
John Varley Rarities and Collectibles
eBay is a good place to look for back issues of magazines with interviews or stories from John Varley, as well as first editions of his books.
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